How Much Loft is REALLY on the Club at Impact?

Scott Sackett
Director of Instruction
McCormick Ranch Golf Club
Scottsdale, AZ
http://www.scottsackett.com

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Controlling distance with Irons is important. Among other things, the key to consistency in this part of your game is keeping the loft being delivered to the golf club relatively the same each time. Let’s first define a few terms to better understand this tip.

Static Loft: The amount of loft on the golf club at address. In this example, it is an 8 iron with 40 degrees of static loft.

Attack Angle:  The amount up or down a player is striking the golf shot. In this example, the player strikes the golf shot with a downward strike of -6.6 degrees.  This is indicated by the blue line in picture 1.

Dynamic Loft:  The actual loft on the golf club when the ball is struck. Dynamic Loft changes as the contact point on the clubface changes.

Spin Loft:  This is the difference between Dynamic Loft and Attack Angle.

In determining how much loft is on the golf club at impact it is important to recognize what comprises this and how we get from 40 degrees of Static Loft on an 8 iron to 25.7 degrees of Dynamic Loft or actual loft at impact.

The Dynamic Loft is comprised of how much you hit up or down on the golf shot and how much shaft lean you have either backward or forward. You take Attack Angle and subtract it from the Static Loft. 40-6.6=33.4 degrees. You then take the Dynamic Loft number Trackman gives you and subtract that from your answer of 33.4. This gives you 7.8 degrees. This number equals approximately how many degrees of shaft lean you have. In this example, it is 7 degrees. This shot was hit slightly thin, which registers a Dynamic Loft lower than if the ball was struck in the center. Had it been struck in the center, you would see approximately 1 more degree of Dynamic Loft thus getting a number much closer to the 7 degrees of shaft lean.

*7 degrees is the approximate amount of shaft lean. This number is a calculation based on data reported from other parameters. It is one of 2 components of Dynamic Loft.

I take all my students through a distance training assessment to get a better understanding of how consistent they are at delivering the same amount of loft to the golf ball each time, as we work through the golf bag. I recommend every player get on Trackman and see this data. I rent Trackman 2 days weekly on Thursday and Sunday. To learn more about this program or more about Trackman, visit my website www.scottsackett.com.

Scott Sackett, GOLF Magazine Top 100 Teacher the past 14 years. Voted as one of Golf Digest’s Best Teacher in the State the past 17 years. Trackman Master Certification. Titleist Certified Club Fitter. Director of Instruction at Park Meadows CC in Park City, Utah and while in Scottsdale teaches at McCormick Ranch Golf Club. If you would like to reach Scott, visit his website at www.scottsackett.com